Patricio Mena-Vásconez

• PhD (c)
• PhD Student at Wageningen University & Research

Páramo es un concepto complejo: un ecosistema, un bioma, un paisaje, un área geográfica, una zona de vida, un espacio de producción e inclusive un estado del clima. También es un territorio en disputa y un elemento fundamental de la cultura y la historia. Los páramos ecuatorianos han experimentado un constante cambio durante las últimas décadas. Su...

The history of the Pisque watershed in the Ecuadorian Andes is one of local livelihoods and resources being disrupted by external actors: Incas in Pre-Columbian times, Spaniards during the era of Conquest and Colonisation, and, during the Republic, white-mestizo elites followed by international businesses. Local communities have suffered from, rebe...

As payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs grow around the world, so have concerns over whether a focus on ecosystem services will also protect biodiversity. Biodiverse Ecuadorian páramo grasslands have become a hotspot for PES in an effort to protect water supplies, sequester carbon, conserve biodiversity, and improve rural livelihoods. Howe...

Commercial production of flowers, accumulation of water, and social struggles for equitable distribution and a healthier environment have an intimate relationship. Ecuador is the third world exporter of roses. Cayambe-Tabacundo is the main production region and counts with major water conflicts. Large floriculturists accumulate water, leaving the r...

Water management studies often overlook community diversity, different stakeholders’ values, and frames to claim water rights. Using a political-ecology approach, this article examines an irrigation system in Ecuador’s highlands via Fraser’s principles of justice (recognition, representation, redistribution). Large flower companies and indigenous s...

Ecuador has 18 areas within its National System of Protected Areas; of these, 12 contain substantial samples of montane forests. Diversity and endemism in these areas are notable. This ecosystem is one of the most highly threatened in the country. -from English summary

Páramo is a natural ecosystem occurring above the limits of the continuous forest in the Northern Andes. It is dominated by a vegetation of grasses, rosette trees, shrubs, by wetlands and small forests. The climate is cold and the ecosystem is very sensitive to land-use changes; therefore, its productive potential is on the whole very limited. Howe...

Proyecto atlas mundial de los páramos 2003 Incluye bibliografía e índice